Title: Frogs and Princes
Rating: G
Word Count: 1220
Summary: Sometimes not everything is the way you'd like it. Sometimes you just have to work with what you've got.
A/N: Ryan/Kelsi friendship. Chyan in later chapters. Spoilers for HSM3. Just warning...

"You've never kissed a girl?" Kelsi asked, shocked, her fingers slipping from the keys, ending the melody she was playing abruptly. It wasn't often Ryan surprised her, and she had known him since she was nearly seven so maybe she should have known this, but she figured that there had to be some things they kept hidden. "Then how do you know?"

"I just know Kels." Ryan sat next her on the piano bench where they had been working on a song for Senior Year, the Spring musical. The music room was dark around them, illuminated only by the chintzy table lamp Kelsi had picked out at Goodwill last year. There couldn't have been more than ten people in the entire school at this time of evening, and both of them found it a good time to work. It was, Kelsi though and Ryan secretly agreed, nice to have some space to think without the bedazzled spectre of Sharpay looming over them.

Speaking of Sharpay... Kelsi dislodged her pencil from the messy knot of hair at the back of her head and frantically scribbled out the four bars of triplets she had added in to the song that morning, contemplated changing the key of the song and then added an extra two crescendos. Better to change it now than have Sharpay breathing down her neck all day tomorrow whining that it didn't suit her voice, wasn't what she wanted, and couldn't Kelsi ever get anything right without her assistance?. Satisfied, she tucked the pencil back into her bun and turned to Ryan, who was staring at her with an amused expression on his face.

"You could be bi," she said, suddenly remembering what she had been talking about before inspiration in the form of Sharpay came up, "And just never know because you've never tried it."

Ryan sighed, nudging Kelsi's elbow out of the way so he could pick out the keys for G# Major. He played softly, not really playing anything in particular, and focused his gaze on her. "Kelsi." He removed his hands from the keys, raising them to tuck the stray hairs on Kelsi's face behind her ears. "You know I love you, right honey?"

"More than any woman who's not related to you, I know."

"Then you have to trust me on this one," he said." It's just something I know. Like when Shar was little she knew she that one day she was going to grow up and find a very handsome and very rich prince to marry. She kept a scrap book full of magazine pictures of her dream men and everything." He laughed at the memory, shaking his head. "I had a few pictures of my own, you know." he winked at her and then paused, thinking. "Neither of us had ever been with anyone, but we both knew what we wanted. But no one ever questioned her. You don't have to kiss anyone to know you're straight, so why do you have to kiss someone to know you're not straight? Why am I so different?"

His tone was sad and Kelsi wrapped her arms around him in a hug, smoothing the green fabric of his sweater with her fingers. "You're not Ry... I was stupid to say that."

"You know it," he said, pulling her off him and smiling brightly at her. "Anyway, you know you like someone who is decidedly not male and I know you've never kissed a girl."

Kelsi tried her best to look scandalised and failed miserably. "I know," she said, her smile fading.

Ryan picked up the teapot that sat on top of the piano and raised an eyebrow at Kelsi. She nodded and held up her mug for Ryan to fill. Tea would make her feel better; it always did. She smiled gratefully as Ryan poured tea into both their mugs and then passed the milk jug down to her.

"We on Lady Grey again today?" he asked, sniffing at the delicate steam that wafted from the surface of the liquid. Kelsi nodded and he sighed, blowing on his tea to cool it as he brought the East High mug to his lips. "We make quite the pair don't we? I can't quite seem to get my boy and you can't quite seem to get your girl, and to make matters worse they've both somehow managed to get each other."

Both were silent as they thought back to the display in the cafeteria the day before.

"If it's any consolation we make quite the fabulous pair." Kelsi said at last, tipping Ryan's hat with her free hand. "And it'll work out. You'll see." It had to work out. It just did. She knew as well as Ryan did that Chad and Taylor weren't right for each other, and not for the reasons everyone else thought, but that they hadn't quite figured it out yet. She had thought that they were making progress, but then Troy had gone and invited Gabriella to prom...

"I just... I know." he reached up, putting his mug back on the floral tea tray. He brought his hand back down, dislodging the sheaf of sheet music that leant on the stand, and watched it flutter to the floor. "I got it," he said, bending down to pick it up.

Kelsi had an idea. "Hey," she said as he shuffled the stack of papers and placed them back in their rightful spot, before stretching up to relieve the tension in his back. "Come here."

"Come whe-" he turned towards her and she caught him off guard, wrapping her hands around his neck, and pulling him close. She wasn't Chad, and he certainly wasn't Taylor, but they were both lonely and maybe this was what they needed right now. Either that or she was about to throw eleven years of friendship out the window.

She kissed him softly, lingering for barely more than a second. He looked surprised, not even kissing her back before she pulled away, eyeing him warily.

"Still gay?"

"Still bi?" he countered, rubbing his face absentmindedly. He looked dazed, but there was the beginning of a smile on his face.

Kelsi let out a breath. Perhaps she wouldn't have to find a new best friend just yet. "Yeah," she said.

"We could..." Ryan gestured awkwardly with his hand, blushing.

"Yeah..."

He initiated the kiss this time, lips pushing insistently against hers, hands entangled in her hair, tongue grazing gently against her lips. She let him in, her own hesitance melting away.

They were both breathing hard when they pulled away.

"That was..."

"Pretty impressive for your first time, Ry," Kelsi winked at him, "Anyone'd think you'd been practicing," she laughed. "But, I have to warn you, no amount of tongue is going to turn me into your prince."

Ryan laughed, throwing his head back, hands grasping instinctively at his hat to stop it from falling off. He blushed again.

"Kelsi my dear... Did you just compare yourself to a frog? Wait... Does that mean you were trying to turn me into your princess?"

"I..." she giggled, turning back to the piano, staring unseeing at the sheet music spread out on the stand, trying to calm herself. "Oh Ry," she said at last, "You've always been my princess."